Today's Creation Moment

Mar

03

Are We as Good as It Gets?

Proverbs 16:18

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall."

Are we, as human beings, as good as it gets? According to several influential evolutionary scientists, human beings are as good as it gets, and evolution has stopped for us. Some dispute this, saying...

Chronology

From a strictly human standpoint, the claim that the earth is young is just so much double-talk. But the question of whether the earth is billions of years old, or just a couple of thousands of years old, occupies a central place in the creation/evolution debate. For some, it is the question of whether there was time for the impossible to happen - life to arise from non-life. In the mind of the Biblical Christian, however, it is not a question of defeating evolution but of what is true, what does the Bible say?

1. The name Genesis that we apply to the first book of the Bible has been adopted from the Greek word GENESIS meaning "beginnings." The Jews call this book BERESHITH which is the first Hebrew word of this book and means "In beginning." Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. There is a logical order here: Beginning (time), heavens (space) and earth (matter). The Big Bang Theory has reversed this order. Note that "the heavens" is plural.

1. Following the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, God pronounced the curse, firstly as it would affect the serpent, then Eve, then Adam. Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between you [the serpent] and the woman, and between your seed [serpent's seed] and her seed [Jesus]; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. When the sainted Jerome (A.D.347-419) translated the Hebrew to produce the Latin Vulgate Bible there was a slip of one letter in the Latin pronoun ipse (his) to ipsa (her).

Introduction.The study of early man is known as paleoanthropology and, although scientific techniques are used, this discipline deals with non-repeatable and non-observable events of the past and by definition cannot be considered as a science. The exercise begins by assuming that man evolved from the animal Kingdom then looking for evidence that would confirm it.

When claims are made that certain animals known only by their fossils are "extinct," all that is really meant is that no living specimens have been found. For example, the oceans are the least explored area of this planet and undoubtedly contain many creatures that are passing into extinction without ever having been discovered. The plesiosaur may possibly be one such example.

1. The Fall of man took place in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve had been created in perfection in a perfect world; they were physically perfect and quickly becoming full of God's wisdom. There were three kinds of tree in the Garden: trees to provide food, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Satan tempted Eve where she was most vunerable: pride. He offered the opportunity for Adam and Eve to obtain wisdom without having to go to God each time; they would thus be independant.

Note: Creation Moments exists to provide Biblically sound materials to the Church in the area of Bible and science relationships. This Bible study may be reproduced for group use.

There is an old joke about a novice archaeologist who was terribly disappointed when professional archaeologists refused to accept the authenticity of a coin he had found. He could not understand why the coin, bearing the date of “125 B.C.,” was considered a hoax.

1. The discovery of the colored peoples by the Caucasian Christian West in the 16th century caused some to doubt that the Genesis Flood had been universal since the only family on the Ark were surely Caucasion! Later, at the time of the Industrial Revolution and during the search for coal and minerals, it was realized that rocks appeared in layers or stratum, each of different composition from those layers above and below.

1. Historically, the western mind has, until the beginning of the nineteenth century, considered the earth to be only a few thousand years old and this was based upon the Biblical account and the ensuing genealogies given into historical times. Following European and Elizabethan exploration, questions of race were raised and doubts cast upon the universality of the Genesis Flood.

Footnotes:

A preserved coelacanth at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco. Courtesy of BrokenSphere. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

1. Neither those who believe in Creation nor those who believe in Evolution deny that there has been an Ice-Age, but opinions differ sharply as to when it occurred, how it occurred and if it happened more than once. There have been many theories, but none have yet adequately explained all the data. In 1815 Mt. Tambora, Indonesia, exploded and in the following year the world saw no summer, there was little food, world-wide starvation and stock markets crashed.